82: Chapter 4: Swordsman · Dissonance · Shiyu 82: Chapter 4: Swordsman · Dissonance · Shiyu Several minutes later, Gongsun Ce sighed alone, “Reckless and willful, that’s exactly what she is …”
Kardesia walked away with Qin Qianbai, and Mr.
Shiyu left with the forms for school, while Gongsun Ce, who dragged his feet and hadn’t budged, obviously didn’t want to deal with his assigned task.
He believed he had been given the most difficult assignnt, one that was not on the sa level as the won’s group’s task to “buy appropriate performance attire!” or Mr.
Shiyu’s “submit the relevant docunts to the school!”
The na of this task was “Find the fifth mber of the Cyber · Ghost · Music Club.”
“I, I rember that, of course!
I just thought of it, didn’t I!
Gongsun Ce, you know a lot of people, so this task is yours!
Even if you have to use superpowers to threaten soone, tie soone up and bring them here before tonight!”
How dare she give such a tyrannical order to a friend!
Do you think everyone will indulge you like Mr.
Shiyu does?
No way I’m doing it!
To be honest, he really did want to refuse like that.
Mr.
Shiyu seed to really dislike the club’s na.
While Gongsun Ce thought the idea was pretty cool, his good friend who had just saved his life a few days ago was so adamantly against it that perhaps it warranted further discussion before making a decision.
— However, the miss had left the word “Good Luck” written on the clipboard she held aloft.
— Even with a poker face, it was clear she was quite interested this ti.
Well, there was no helping it then.
After bowing his hands in prayer and silently apologizing to the wryly smiling Mr.
Shiyu, the youth with gray hair accepted the daunting task without another word.
As a result, long after the other three had left, he remained seated in the sa spot, his head aching as he contemplated whom to recruit for the club.
Excuse , classmate, would you be interested in the Cyber · Ghost · Music Club—If only it were as easy as pulling soone aside in college and asking them.
In practice, “pulling soone in” was probably the first hard challenge.
Gongsun Ce considered himself a friendly and approachable young man, but the other three mbers of the club probably didn’t seem as amiable in the eyes of others.
Miss Qin, who had once sent soone flying into a wall, Mr.
Shiyu, who made troublemakers spontaneously burst into tears and beg for rcy, and Kardesia, who had set fire to a high school—if word got out that one had to engage in club activities with these people, few would be keen to join.
Even if only for the sake of one’s own image, it would be wise to steer clear of them.
After all, being seen frequently with problematic individuals could tarnish one by association.
Wasn’t that why he was perceived as odd by others and even dubbed “Demon”?
Surely this was due to the bad behavior of his friends!
“Maybe I should just ask my big brother.”
Gongsun Ce thought it over and couldn’t find a suitable peer.
While he pondered whether to recruit so information broker as a nominal mber, he let his gaze wander between the TV, the cashier, and the entrance to pass the ti in reality.
The busiest ti had passed, and the fast-food restaurant was now nearly half-empty.
It was relatively easy to count the few custors who entered.
And it was during this process that a new custor caught his eye.
The youth with gray hair narrowed his eyes.
The person who had just walked into the fast-food restaurant was a tall, thin man with long hair.
His hair fell down to his collarbone at the temples, with a wooden hairpin slanted through the strands at the back of his head.
He was dressed in a green robe with red trim, long pants, and cloth shoes, looking like a character out of a folk legend.
This attire was already out of place in modern society, but what drew even more attention was what he carried with him.
It was two blades.
One was a long sword strapped to his back, and the other was a short sword hanging at his waist.
One might think he was an actor from so troupe, or an enthusiast deliberately dressed this way…
That’s what most people would assu.
If they just passed him on the street, Gongsun Ce would have thought the sa because he didn’t sense any danger from the man, nor any premonition of powers being activated, or any personal hostility.
“…”
However, Gongsun Ce still furrowed his brow.
Because the man was walking towards him, because the man was nodding his head in greeting, because the man had co to stand opposite him and asked, “Is this seat taken?”
“The person just left, please, take a seat.”
The man in the long robe sat down sideways, angling his long sword to avoid the chair back.
The Superpower User speculated about the other’s intentions.
The man did not seem to be of student age, therefore unlikely to be a Superpower User.
Unless he was disguising himself through special ans, there was an eight or nine out of ten chance that he was an Impermanence Law Enforcer.
Or perhaps, he was like so young lady’s family mber, an individual who practiced martial arts.
This information was not enough for him to make further deductions.
He waited for the man to state his purpose.
The man in the long robe said, “Let’s have a fight.”
“…Huh?”
The young man let out a sound of surprise.
These straightforward four words pulled Gongsun Ce from the bustling routine of his daily life into an extraordinary and ill-fated space.
Grinding his teeth, he cursed his own bad luck and said, “It’s very impolite to demand a fight without even giving your na.”
The man in the long robe looked at the students lining up at the cash register, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned, as if he found it all very amusing.
“One should introduce oneself before the duel begins.
You haven’t yet responded to my invitation.”
The Superpower User was montarily puzzled.
This man was challenging others to fight in a public space with an air of nonchalance, which did not make him seem like an official personage.
Yet, if he were a hostile freelancer, the indifference in his speech once again stirred confusion.
What exactly had brought this man here?
He carefully weighed his words and answered, “I don’t want to fight with you.”
The Superpower User finally saw a different expression on the man’s face.
The man in the long robe closed his eyes, appearing quite troubled.
After thinking for a while, he said, “I can give you money, a lot of money.”
“No thanks, I’m not in financial difficulty at the mont.”
“Hmm…” The man in the green robe tapped his brow, “I can do sothing for you, nothing too unreasonable.”
As if to emphasize the persuasiveness of his offer, he asserted earnestly, “I am very powerful.”
Gongsun Ce was montarily at a loss for words, a rare situation for soone who was adept at rhetoric.
The reason was simple; the gentleman’s words were far beyond his expectations.
He had thought that he would be dealing with yet another cunning or inscrutable character, but unexpectedly, this man’s way of speaking sounded almost childlike.
The young man was accustod to using lies to deal with situations, but he didn’t feel like deceiving soone who acted in such a manner—he couldn’t guarantee whether the person would take an obvious lie for truth.
If he said, “bring the Dawn Knight’s hunting cap and I’ll fight with you, or bring the Sky Extre’s coat and I’ll fight with you,” this man might indeed leisurely set off to King Morton’s Country or to find the middle-aged painter.
He could perfectly imagine the scenario…
and no matter whether the man got the items or not, he would be the one to suffer afterward.
Gongsun Ce decided to respond in the simplest and most straightforward way, “Sir, thank you for your kindness, but I do not want to fight.
If there’s nothing else, I will be leaving now.”
The man in green clothes turned his head with a troubled expression, “What must I do for you to fight with ?”
The young man with grey hair answered truthfully.
“You could try to anger , like swearing at or taking a swing at with a knife, and I assure you, I will fight you with all my rage.”
“That would be terribly impolite,” the man in the robe sighed regretfully, “If you ever want to fight, feel free to look for .
We will have our bout.”
He paused, then asked, “Is the food here any good?”
“If you don’t mind greasy food, it’s pretty good and offers great value for money.
I personally recomnd the signature chicken leg burger al and the individual fried chicken, but I wouldn’t advise you to try the new Biochemical Kangaroo burger.
Soone got sick from it a few days ago.”
“Thank you.
See you next ti.”
The man in the robe went to queue up to order.
Gongsun Ce walked out of the fast-food restaurant, looking up at the increasingly thick clouds in the sky, and then at the concrete pavent underneath, and exclaid in earnest, “What kind of person was that!”
His tone was as if he was certain they would et again.
Later, he would have to ask his elder brother, and if that didn’t work out, Mr.
Shiyu…
or perhaps Yan Qi…
He shook his head, casting aside thoughts of the strange person, and went back to considering the matters of the club activities.
The man in the long robe ordered a Biochemical Kangaroo burger set and a durian purple rice milk tea flavored ice cream.
The female cashier at the front desk tactfully pointed out that neither was very popular with custors.
He was happy to try them.
In a new city, one should eat food not found elsewhere, see sights not seen elsewhere, and fight opponents not found elsewhere.
That was the joy of life.
He took a pair of plastic gloves and finished the Biochemical al of Cangqiong City.
The patty lacked the taste of Dragon Blood, tasting more like synthetic food than real Biochemical at.
He thought it had a strange flavor, but the patty was chewy, not great but not terrible either.
The ice cream slled foul, but tasted quite sweet, and he found the cookie cone it was served in delicious.
After eating half, the man in the long robe stood up and walked away with his ice cream.
He casually chose a direction and strolled along the comrcial street, passing by a clothing store on the way.
The glass display window showcased the newly listed clothes and those on seasonal discount, occasionally drawing passersby to pause, but unlike usual, they did not approach closely to look, instead stood at a distance, discussing.
He stopped, waiting for about ten seconds.
After a traffic light cycle, more people began to walk down the street.
There were middle-aged n dressed for work, elderly people leaning on canes, and groups of young people laughing and running through the streets.
Without exception, everyone bypassed the front of the display window.
Viewed from above, the scene would display a starkly obvious incongruity—centered around the display window of the clothing store, there was a semicircular blank area with a radius of about one and a half ters.
No one walked through this area, even students in a hurry would deliberately make a detour before passing the store.
“Hmm.”
The man in the long robe started moving again, walking along the edge of the semicircular area, perfectly maintaining a distance of one and a half ters from the center of the window.
He paced slowly, walking back and forth twice, until the door of the clothing store was pushed open from the inside, and the female store owner smiled and greeted him, “Hello, sir, can I help you?”
The man in the robe asked a strange question.
“Am I walking in a straight line?”
The shop owner was a bit flustered, “Yes…
I’ve been watching you walk closely along the display window, you’re almost up against the glass.”
The man in the long robe nodded, “That’s how I feel too.
Have you noticed anything strange?
Strange wind…
strange slls…
strange sounds.”
“…No.”
Everything seed perfectly normal, except for this long-robe-clad, sword-carrying guest eating an ice cream.
She certainly couldn’t tell the custor, “I think you’re quite strange.”
“Thank you,” the man in green clothes looked inside the store, “Do you sell wrist guards here?”
The man in the robe bought a pair of green wrist guards.
Adding a bit of weight to the wrists could change the feeling of wielding a sword, more useful than any Heart Phase Weapon.
He believed he needed to figure out a way to address the incongruity he had just experienced.
Wind and slls could be felt on the move, but special sounds were different.
The man in the long robe decided to look for a multidia store.
He was not familiar with this city, but he had plenty of ti.
He could just pick a direction and walk until he found what he was looking for.
He wasn’t worried about coming up empty-handed; he had a wooden hairpin.
As long as he carried the hairpin, he would always find things that interested him.
So the man in the robe turned a corner and walked at random, stopping ten minutes later at a crossroads.
Across the street stood a blue-haired woman dressed for hunting.
As the traffic light turned green, the Hunter walked against the flow of people to cross the street, coming to face him.
The man in the robe asked, “Who are you?”
A strand of her hair turned black then quickly changed back.
He suddenly understood, “That’s amazing.
So convenient.”
Shiyu Ling tapped the short arrow on her waist, “Did you save , Ming Guest?”
Ming Guest smiled.
“Another Shiyu cares a lot about you.
He asked to speak to the Yiji Hall people and tell them not to kill you.”
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